“We are entirely accepting that the number of EU nationals will go down over time and we would love to increase the number of UK nationals within our business. We absolutely accept that is going to happen,” Wareham said.

“Our thoughts around this are that there could be quotas based on data in terms of how much work is required and as the number of EU nationals goes down, the number of UK nationals increase. That needs to happen as smoothly as possible over time.

“We are excited about, actually there’s more that we can do to attract the fantastic British workforce to our industry even though it is difficult in central London locations. That takes resource but if we have that we will be successful in that.”

We are entirely accepting that the number of EU nationals will go down over timeAndrea Wareham

But she added that the government’s focus on high-skilled jobs “doesn’t help us in any way”.

She said without changing perceptions of a job in hospitality, the outlook wouldn’t improve.

Wareham argued the whole UK hospitality industry should work together to change the image of a career in food retail in the eyes of British school leavers and parents.